She repeatedly says she doesn’t “like this attention” and yet released a pre-recorded video about the capture of the boat she was travelling on towards Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force.
Early this morning, it was reported that Greta was at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on her way home. The country’s foreign ministry announced she and others on the 12-strong trip were “expected to leave within the next few hours”.
And with 14.8m followers on Instagram and 5.2m followers on X, Greta – sufficiently famous to be a one-name activist – brings plenty of attention.
Opponents of the 22-year-old Swedish activist have been incandescent about the trip. Few can trigger the right-wing woke-slayers like Greta. Amid the insults thrown at her on yesterday’s talk shows were that she was “morally repugnant” and indulging in “performative virtue-signalling”.
The Madleen was intercepted in international waters off the coast of Egypt in the early hours of Monday morning after setting sail from Sicily on 1 June.
Israel’s foreign ministry, in turn, attempted to diminish the trip by referring to the Madleen as a “selfie yacht” which was carrying Greta and other so-called “celebrities”.
A placard reads ‘Thank you freedom flotilla’ as participants gather during a rally to show their support for activists aboard (Photo: Alex Martin/AFP)Of course, any aid is of use in a place where children are starving to death, but the suffering of the people of Gaza will not end until the public around the world places such pressure on their governments that they in turn push Israel to stop it.
All across Instagram and TikTok yesterday there were mournful-looking young people listening to the news that Greta’s boat had been “kidnapped”.
Greta was just 15 when she started her school strikes in Sweden over the climate crisis. It came after she had struggled for years with isolation and depression, seemingly desolate at the older generation’s refusal to stop its neglect of the planet.
In October 2023, she began posting in solidarity with the Palestinian people and then joined the onslaught of protest against the Israeli entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo.
It is unsure whether they did, but they should do. Not to stop their activism, but to inform it. As Gandhi, who spoke often about trying to understand those you oppose, said: “Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.”
But she was polarising from the start, with many on the right of politics characterising her as a joyless zealot intent on snatching the nation’s steaks and sun-soaked holidays.
square ADAM BOULTON Israel is winning the war in Gaza - a two-state solution is becoming impossible
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A succession of editors with little climate science knowledge but a lot of bluster told Greta her campaigning was flawed and Brits didn’t like being preached at, before asking for a selfie and then rushing back to the office to preach to their readers.
Some will argue Greta’s dogmatic approach to activism did harm the climate debate by antagonising those who could have been won over. And now it could have the same impact on the crisis in Gaza.
Alison Phillips was editor of the Daily Mirror from 2018-24; she won Columnist of the Year at the 2018 National Press Awards
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